Ernest goes to Johto Chapter 2
by Taylor Lee
Summary: Ernest P Worrell arrives in the Pokemon World, and is mistakenly thought to be Chosen One Ash Ketchum, and begins the journey of a lifetime.


_**Chapter 2-The Switch**_

**"Who does that guy think he is?" Ash muttered to himself.**

**He applied some bandages to his forehead in the first aid station.**

**However hard he tried, he wasn't going to deny that there was at least some truth to the fact that there was something between him and Misty.**

**_I think it started that one night in the Vermillion Forest, _he thought, _when Misty clung to him, shrieking at a small harmless Caterpie, which absolutely mortified her._**

**At first Ash had regretted stealing her bike, but it was for the sake of his Pikachu. At that moment however, in the Vermillion forest, he didn't seem to think it was too bad a fate. **

**Throughout the following escapades, numerous adventures and other things like that, his developed feelings grew stronger towards her. She probably didn't feel the same way, so he never brought up the topic of romance or love around her, in case it led to interesting questions.**

**Ash walked to the restroom and started to wash his hands.**

**The manager had a point-Why would Misty stick with him for so long?**

**Then he remembered ……**

_**Back at the Vermillion City Pokemon Center all of those years ago he saw Misty come in, carrying a mangled bicycle.**_

_**"What happened to your bike?" he had asked her.**_

_**"Wha-What? YOU happened to my bike! It's completely trashed now thanks to you and your Pikachu!" She screamed at him. **_

_**"I'm really sorry! I'll tell you what, Misty, I'll get you a new bike as soon as I hit it big!"**_

_**"A twerp like you, hit it big?"**_

_**"I can do it! I'm going to be a Pokemon master!"**_

_**"How do I know you won't just say that and never get me a new bike?"**_

_**He thought about it for a second when he replied "Why don't you come with me?"**_

**At first, he had kicked himself for such a rash decision, but soon learned to live with, even value and enjoy, her company.**

**Ash liked Misty a lot, but was fairly certain that after all of the abuse, she couldn't possibly like him back.**

**He was washing his hands when suddenly, the wall opposite of the door crashed open.**

**Ash tried to see what caused the wall to break, but there was too much white foam spitting out from it.**

**"WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" it screamed.**

**Ash thought to himself, however ridiculous it sounded, that it looked like a man being dragged around by a vacuum of sorts. It sounded too crazy to believe, but that's what it looked like.**

**Suddenly, the vacuum (or so it appeared to be) stopped, and the man being dragged around by it flew forward, past the vacuum, and his head collided with the wall. **

**The noise from the sweeper died down, and Ash found himself staring at a lanky man, covered in foam, wearing a brown cap that looked similar to his, wearing a denim vest covering a grey T-shirt.**

**Amazingly, the man sat up, after bashing his skull into the brick wall, and said:**

**"Good thing it hit the hard end."**

**Ash stared at the man as he rose up, not phased by the collision in the least.**

**"Hey!"**

**Ash leaped as the man shouted those words.**

**"What do you think you're doing in here? It's after hours, and our store closes at 9:00pm! How'd you get in here anyways?"**

**The man straightened his cap and walked to the door behind him, opened it and gasped.**

**"I don't believe this! What happened to the store? It's all gone, replaced by trees and rocks and that building over there. Where are all of the cards and-"**

**Ash looked out the door behind the man, and said "Who are you?"**

**………….**

**Ernest looked behind him, just remembering that the kid was there, wearing a cap emblazoned with a weird looking logo, and a blue vest that looked somewhat like his own, in the store bathrooms after hours.**

**"Who am I? Who are you, and what are you doing in our store this late? I hope you're not planning to steal any of our fine Pokemon merchandise, exclusively available at Albert's Toys and Games entertainment stores….."**

**………….**

**Ash was questioning what this guy was talking about.**

**A store? He wasn't anywhere near a store, and certainly not one that sold any Pokemon merchandise.**

**"…..unfortunately for you, I, Ernest P Worrell, vigilant as a hungry lion, was able to thwart your efforts."**

**Ash then interrupted Ernest and asked, "Where are you from, uhh…..Ernest?"**

**Ernest replied with great pride**

**"My history is rich with tradition, so I'm afraid I won't be able to indulge you in a tale that lengthy, as that would take many a year to tell. I am originally from Nashville, Tennessee, but moved to Lexington, Kentucky to accept a job as "sanitary engineer" for our store which you are currently trespassing upon."**

**Ash was dumbfounded by what his man was saying.**

**He had never heard of these places before, so decided to ask a simpler question.**

**"I meant, are you from Kanto, Johto, or some other region?"**

**It was Ernest's turn to be confused.**

**"I went to a dojo once, but I'm not from one…… I'm from the good ol' U S of A! Where are you from?"**

**Ash answered the question as though he had it rehearsed, "I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town of the Kanto region, east of here."**

**Ernest thought to himself for a moment……**

**_Ash? Haven't I seen that before?_**

**Ernest walked passed Ash towards the sweeper, sitting next to the hole in the wall from whence it came. He lifted it up and from the front end, dislodged a package.**

**Ash looked at the package in his hand and gasped. It was figurine of him!**

**Ernest examined the package, then looked towards Ash. He looked at the package, then at Ash again. He looked back at the package and turned his gaze towards Ash. **

**"No…..they don't look similar….just my imagination running away from me." **

**Ash ripped the package from his hands "I don't believe it! I always knew I was famous, but to have my own action figure? How awesome is that? Wait till Misty sees this- and here she though I'd never make it big!"**

**Something about the package had confused Ash though……he read the back and it read "Collect all of the Pokemon action figures". It was almost as though, where this package came from, Pokemon weren't real… they were merely collectibles… but where would that be?**

**Pokemon were everywhere!**

**Ash looked at Ernest and queried "So….uh…how did you get in here?"**

**Ernest defensively told him "I was unpacking all of the Kikkoman products, when I decided to give them a welcome fit for a sultan in the Kingdom of Neffertiti, something that such hot sellers truly deserve. I was going to polish the floors, when ol' Clean Sweep here got real excited and went on an overzealous cleaning rampage! Before I could stop her, or him I'm not real sure yet, it smashed through the wall over there!"**

**He pointed at the gaping whole in the bathroom wall, gazing at the numerous trees that replaced the shop he had just come from. **

**Ash was confused, for good reason, but not to the level that Ernest was.**

**"I don't believe this! I smash through a wall one minute, and when I look back, the rest of the store is gone, replaced by a bunch of trees? Uh oh…….**

**When the boss sees this, he's going to blame it on me! Gosh….I've gotta fix this!"**

**Ash looked at Ernest and thought to himself, "What an idiot! He hasn't realized that perhaps he might not be at his shop, maybe he traveled through a sort of time or space portal?" Ash often let his imagination run away from him like this, which Misty enjoyed listening to. Ash had often read comics as a kid concerning trans-dimensional rifts, and people traveling from alternate realities to another. Perhaps there was some truths to it this time though; Ernest seemed genuinely confused.**

**_But who wouldn't be, _he thought to himself. _If I was torn from my world, I'd probably panic worse than he is!_ He shuddered at the thought of a world without any Pokemon in it.**

**Ernest snapped his gaze down at Ash, and pleaded to him!**

"**Please Mr. Ketchup! You gotta help me clean this up! If my boss sees this, I'll lose everything! My career, my spiritual calling, my destiny… I'll lose my job!" **

**Ash was about to tell him that he wasn't in the "U S of A" anymore, when the sweeper suddenly roared back to life, and started to fly off into the newly created hole in the wall. He looked down and he saw his leg tangled in the power cord of the sweeper. He lost his balance, and went flying, being dragged along with the sweeper.**

"**Hey! Give back my Clean Sweep! Come back here, thief!" Ernest shouted chasing Ash, following him through the hole that he made a few minutes earlier.**

**As his sweeper flew into the trees, Ash dangling behind screaming for help, he gave up and walked back into the restroom.**

"**I don't believe this", he said to himself, "First those poor figurines wake up to a dirty new home, the store gets turned into a bunch of trees, then a kid steals Clean Sweep… Golly, I just have rotten luck huh?**

"**AAAASSSSSSSHHHHH!" he heard a girl shout.**

"**Uh oh…. Who's that?" Ernest mumbled to himself.**

**A rather thin, red-headed girl barged into the restroom, and grabbed Ernest's arm. She pulled him out, not looking at him but still furiously yelling at him all the while.**

"**Ash! You promised to pay for the meal, remember?"**

**Ernest answered to her demand by saying "I did? I must've forgotten in the heat of that ki-" **

**The redhead turned around saying to him "What's wrong with your voice, Ash? You sound differ-WAAAAH!"**

**She looked at Ernest's face, and he smiled his trademark dopey smile.**

**"ASH! What the heck did you use on your face? It's all wrinkled! And your clothes? You dyed your hat and clothes? Why did you do that?"**

**Ernest looked seriously bothered by her verbal thrashing, and sorely replied "Gosh, I always dress like this. It never bothered you before, so why are you so upset now?**

**Come to think of it, I've never met you before. Maybe I did but I just don't remember. I'm so popular, that sometimes I just meet so many people that it gets kinda difficult to remember them all, knowhatimean? Yeah, fame definitely comes at a cost, but it's well worth it. Whenever I enter a room, people shudder in my wake; they are like putty in my fingers."**

**She gaped incredulously at him and pulled him inside of the diner and towards the table where Brock and Pikachu were sitting.**

**Pikachu was savoring the flavor of his ketchup packets when he saw Ernest walk towards him. **

"**PIKAA!"**

**Ernest looked down at the electric rat. He found it to look very familiar. At first he did nothing, suddenly he realized where he had seen it before.**

**It was his first "prisoner to set free". A little mouse named Pikachu.**

**A scared expression crossed his face, and he started screaming.**

"**AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! GET AWAY FROM ME!"**

**He ran behind the desk, and pulled out a broom from the cupboard that, as a janitor, he knew exactly where to look. **

**Broomstick in hand, he ran towards the confused and annoyed Pikachu.**

"…**..and all of those Bubblicious Plagues will be done and over with when I'm finished!"**

**He started smacking the poor, bewildered Pokemon with the broom.**

**"…..this reminds me of way back when, when Vern had rats at his place. He always knew who to call on when it came to pest control….."**

**The dimples on Pikachu's face sparked and a wave of lightning zapped Ernest, not too much, but enough to make him stop.**

**"Ash, what the heck has gotten into you? Is this some kind of joke?" Brock shouted at him, "and what did you do to your clothes and face?"**

**Ernest finally realized something.**

**They had been calling him "Ash" for a while now, but he wasn't.**

**Could it be that his attire was similar enough to warrant confusion, that perhaps they thought he was that other kid?**

**"Hold on a sec! I'm not Ash! You must be talking abou-" Ernest attempted to defend himself, but the redhead interrupted him.**

**"ASH! Pretending to be someone else is another one of your tricks to get out of paying for the meal isn't it? Isn't it?"**

**The manager joined in the conversation "Yeah, you guys do need to pay up. I don't run a charity around here!"**

**Finally, Ernest, fed up with the constant shouting and yelling, walked up to the front desk and gave the manager a one-hundred dollar bill. He then proceeded to walk out of the diner, when the manager very crossly told him.**

**"This ain't a joke. Pay up now."**

**Ernest walked back to the desk, and boldly told the manager, "My good sir, you will notice if you look downwards, that I have paid you with a hundred dollars, which should be more efficient-"**

**"What the heck is a dollar?" the manager queried, "We only accept yen around these parts."**

**Ernest asked him "Hen? What kind of currency is that? Why would you want poultry when you could have a crisp dollar bill in your hands? And carrying a chicken in your pockets all day isn't exactly the most cleanly thing, and I should know, for I am Ernest P Worrell, Sanitary Engineer."**

**Brock interjected, "What's taking you so long Ash? Just give him his yen and let's go!" Brock then noticed the green bill on the desk. "What's that Ash?"**

**Ernest was stunned, and he responded by telling Brock "Its money! You use it to buy things, and you can do a lot of other neat stuff with it too. I've seen someone fold a bird out of a 20 dollar bill once! What was it he called it…..An Oregano crane!"**

**Misty, as fiery as she was, was tired of waiting in that dingy diner,and sick to death of Ernest's antics, so she took out her trusty mallet. "Oh Ash?" she taunted him.**

**Whilst Brock and the Manager were discussing and fondling the dollar bill Ernest turned around to see an enraged Misty holding a mallet above her head.**

**"Wow! That's really neat! I've never seen a hammer that big before! It must weigh a ton! You've got to have good upper arm strength to be able to wield it effectively, which I'm pretty sure I could must-"**

**Misty had swung the mallet at him with full force.**

**She swung so hard in fact, that the mallet head shattered. The noise was deafening.**

**_Oh god_ Misty thought _I hope that didn't hurt him too much…..I'm amazed he hasn't fainted yet…..If he does, he'll probably hate me for it….._**

**"Owwow! Gosh lady, that really hurt! You really need to be more careful with that mallet, and make sure that you don't drop it on anyone accidentally like that again…."**

**Misty and Brock stared at him in disbelief.**

**He had just gotten hit on the head with the force of a train, and not only was he not hurt or affected, but he assumed it was an accident!**

**Suddenly, it dawned on Misty and Brock. A fact had arisen about their friend.**

**"…..of course, luckily it hit the hard end." Ernest finished his ranting.**

**"Hey Brock"**

**"Yeah Misty?"**

**"Something is wrong with Ash here."**

**"You're telling me"**

**"I know what it is!" Misty exclaimed.**

**"Ooh…. What is it?" **

**"This guy-" she pointed at Ernest "This guy is-"**

**The tension in the room was unbearable.**

**Misty finally finished "This guy……is entitled to a huge wad of cash if he files a lawsuit about the horrible first aid kits in this area, which has unnoted side effects, such as clothes changing color, wrinkles appearing on face, dumbing down of brain cells, and a deepening of the voice!"**

**Brock fell over astonished.**

**Ernest gazed thoughtfully at Misty for a moment then opened his mouth as if he was going to speak.**

**He hesitated, then said "I don't really want one thanks."**

**Amidst all of the confused stares, he continued by saying **

"**I'd rather wear what I have right now; those lawsuits don't sound very comfortable."**

**Brock paid the speechless manager the required yen, and they walked out the door, with Ernest noting, "Gosh, you guys sure are quiet! You're starin' at me like I'm a whole different person, knowhatimean?"**


End file.
